News Headlines:

Activists slam Delhi Police response in gangrape case

5 Jan 2013, 1739 hrs IST
, AGENCIES

Delhi
Police was at the receiving end yet again today with activists slamming it for
allegedly bickering over jurisdiction when the 23-year-old gangrape victim and
her male friend were fighting for their life on that fateful
night.

They sought strict action and FIR against the police personnel
who were on duty on December 16 when the ghastly incident took place in South
Delhi, saying it has "exposed the practices of the Delhi Police" which have been
unnoticed for long.

Former IPS officer and activist Kiran Bedi, who
served with the Delhi Police for decades, said the policemen who arrived on the
spot could have registered FIR on their own as no law prescribes that the
document can be registered only under a particular police
station.

"It is happening everyday. That is why people have lost
faith in Police. This practice has been there for long and now they have been
caught. There is no law that bars police from registering FIR. It can be
registered at one station and then transferred," she said.

Bedi was
reacting to the allegations by the male friend of the victim, who died on
December 29 in a Singapore hospital, that three Police Control Room vans arrived
at the scene only after about 45 minutes and wasted time in deciding under which
police station's jurisdiction the case fell.

National Commission for
Women chairperson Mamata Sharma sought "strict action" against the policemen and
demanded that an FIR be lodged against the personnel on duty for the
act.

"Two people were lying on the ground. Even on grounds of
humanity, they should have been taken to a hospital. But the police did not do
that," she said.

"FIR and a case have to be registered against the
personnel on duty that day," Sharma demanded. Bedi alleged these were the faults
in regular police and said "this is how we create crisis."

Eminent
lawyer and suspended BJP MP Ram Jethmalani found "fault" with Police
Commissioner Neeraj Kumar for not fixing responsibility yet in the
case.

"I can't tell you without an inquiry who should be held
responsible. I am not a judge. I have not heard the evidence but that an inquiry
should be held by now and the fact that the inquiry has not been made is the
fault of the Commissioner."

The male friend had yesterday claimed
that nobody, including the police, gave them clothes or called an ambulance.
"They were just watching us," he said, adding that after repeated requests,
somebody gave him a part of a bed sheet to cover the girl.

He rued
that no one from the public came forward to help. People were probably afraid
that if they helped us, they would become witnesses to the crime and would be
asked to come to police stations and courts, he said.